The death of Kim Jong-il has ignited many different reactions. Obituary writers have been able to look back on a lifetime of human rights abuses and expert cognac appreciation. Diplomats will look ahead to an uncertain period of transition as his son Kim Jong-un prepares to assume power. And the rest of us? We'll probably just unwittingly spend the day humming I'm So Ronery from Team America.

As an avowed cinephile, Kim Jong-il lived his life through film. He was rumoured to own more than 30,000 American films in his own personal collection; he also once kidnapped a South Korean film-maker to improve the cinema of North Korea, and he apparently banned the John Cusack film 2012 from release over fears that it would jinx the actual 2012, long thought to be North Korea's lucky year. As such, it only seems fitting that we mark his passing by looking at some of his most iconic screen appearances.

Just a short, although one that shows how easily comedy was able to co-opt Kim Jong-il into material. The lack of information known about him made it easy for Entourage's Rex Lee to transform him into a mercurial banana-eating, Criss Angel-hating figure. Is it the most iconic screen portrayal of Kim Jong-il? No. We'll come to that soon.

Kim Jong-il only scored a cameo in the episode Everything Sunny All the Time Always – and even then under the pseudonym Johnny Mountain – but in 16 seconds comedian Margaret Cho managed to perfectly spike North Korea's flair for outlandish propaganda just as effectively as Kim himself did throughout his entire life.

Stonerville (2011)

According to IMDb, Kim Jong-il also made a cameo appearance in this year's Stonerville, a film that will go down in history first as being Leslie Nielsen's last screen appearance and second for being possibly the worst-looking film ever made. I haven't seen Stonerville, and nor will you if you have any sense, but if Dear Leader is in it, it makes the list.

However, if anything brought Kim Jong-il into the international consciousness – more than his nuclear proliferation or outlandish public statements – it's Team America: World Police. The film's portrayal of the dictator was so powerful that, in the hours after his death, it was trending on Twitter. Here, Kim Jong-il was represented as a puppet – a puppet who masked his empty heart with acts of pure evil and the occasional musical number. Here's Kim Jong-il putting an end to his arch-enemy Hans Blix.

But although Kim Jong-il is gone, he'll still live on in film, albeit indirectly. The trailer for next year's The Dictator closes with Sacha Baron Cohen winning a 100m sprint with the aid of a pistol, thought to be a take on the apocryphal story of Kim Jong-il getting a hole in one on his first-ever golf swing. He may be dead, but a character as peculiar as Kim Jong-il should prove to be an enduring influence in film.